The present invention relates in general to vehicle power management system, and, more specifically, to controlling a recharging voltage applied to a battery from a charging source in a vehicle.
Complex controls have been and will continue to be developed for managing electrical power in motor vehicles. The manner in which a battery in such a system is recharged impacts several important aspects of vehicle performance, including battery life and capacity, fuel economy, and proper operation of electrical accessories. Vehicle manufacturers have devoted significant efforts to optimize one or more performance aspects, resulting in complex systems that dynamically control battery charging based on a large number of sensed conditions during vehicle operation. Efforts to develop these complex systems are time consuming and costly. Likewise, the resulting systems require significant data processing capacities. The extensive data gathering and processing hardware is relatively expensive to produce and install.
Another disadvantage of complex systems is that they are not easily reusable on different vehicle models without extensive modification. Since any particular vehicle model includes unique combinations of electrical components and systems, a separate effort has been required to design and validate a vehicle power management system for each respective vehicle. A simple, effective recharging methodology based on a limited number of input conditions would be desirable in order to provide an off the shelf system that is easily adapted to and validated for any particular vehicle model.